Letter: City administrative position justified

Some of us citizens of the city of Sheridan question the wisdom of some decisions made by our mayor and city council. One of those decisions has been the hiring of a city administrator. Admittedly, I was among those who questioned the need for this position. After watching the whole process unfold, reading what has been published, listening to the city council meetings and listening to related discussions on the radio, I now believe this position is fully justified. Sure none of us like the feeling of government forever growing larger, more complex and more expensive. And maybe some things have been done to give us reason to question the wisdom of their decisions, even to the point of seemingly breaking our trust. Some people will say, “we have no say in how things are being done.” We should remember that this is a form of a representative republic. We should ask ourselves, “are we electing the right people to make those decisions for us?”

The biggest question we should ask ourselves is this: Is it reasonable to expect our mayor to have the education, experience and general knowledge to effectively and efficiently run the operations of this city? I think at least two of our recent former (and very talented) mayors have clearly stated the need for a city administrator. Certainly running city hall in the 21st century is a large and complex task.

I believe we currently have a talented city government and the hiring of our city administrator certainly will result in an increased efficiency of, and hopefully a reduced cost of, our city government. Hopefully to the point of more than covering the cost of the position.

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